Waaaay long hiatus from scrapbooking. Care to join me in a restart?

I was an avid scrapbooker for several years, and accumlated (like any scrapper) a ton of product. About 4 years ago, it all came to a screeching halt for me. Burnout? Business of life? Depression? Not sure. I just know I never intended to quit, but I did.

I definitely don't have a return of that old fire, BUT....
I would like to begin again. This time, no pressure. No pressure of chronology, no pressure of number of layouts completed, no pressure of a work of art.

I want to keep it s-i-m-p-l-e.
I want to tell more of our family's stories.
I want to work at least once a week.

Simple goals. I feel overwhelmed at even starting again (none of my product is organized at this point; I don't even know what all I have.)
So....
Have you found yourselves in similar shoes? And would you care to join me on a restart?
Would love a handful of us to hit "reset" and begin anew.
Maybe we could make the smallest of commitments together.

Welcome back! I have not been where you are, but just want to say hi! Look forward to seeing your work. Enjoy!

I am in a similar boat. I had to stop scrapbooking for awhile (about 2 years) due to not having a space and life, and now I am in the process of organizing my daughter's former room into my new scrapbook room! Yay! Anyway, I am setting a goal of at least one layout per week. If that becomes a reality, I may up the goal.

Yes! Started in 1996 stopped in '99. Picked it up again in 2002 then left it off from 2003-2011. Sometimes life just gets in the way. But now I feel myself going full steam. With all the amazing youtube tutorials, online scrapbook groups, & cool products. It's the best time to be scrapbooking!

I have taken (unintentional) breaks from scrapping. Mostly because life got too busy or the space I had at the time didn't work well (I have moved 10 times in the last 10 years!...come to think of it I was probably busy packing, moving, and unpacking.) Most of my breaks were short lived...anywhere between 6 months to 9months at a time. So I do and don't relate to your dilema. All I can say is welcome back. Remember you do not HAVE to do anything, but have fun.

I would recomend that you get your space & stuff in order (take a long weekend) first. Then take a look at some of the new stuff online. Nothing lights a fire in me to scrap like a new paper or whatever. By then you mojo will start creaping in and eventually you will be in full gear again. Don't forget to stay active on SB.com...I don't know why but its more fun when you can share even the smallest accomplishments. We are here for you.

I remember you - welcome back! Most of us have been where you are. No guilt trips allowed!

Have you come across Project Life? It's sectioned page protectors (6x4", 4x3") and you slot in your photos, photo-sized journalling cards, and titles. You can get co-ordinated cards, and it's all designed to be lightly-embellished for speed and ease. Many people slot the PL pages into their regular albums for added interest as well. It might be just what you need to get back into it again.

Have a search for Project Life or PL in the Gallery?

I set a task of scrapping the ;pictures of my mom and got a burn out. The picture quality in the70's were so bad. I left off for a year (?) made cards and paper crafts and just picked it back up, Made 3 really good ones (in my opinion) and trying to power on. 80's pictures are a bit better. Found a site that had layout sketches, Maybe that is what "inspired" me.

I'm with you! I started scrapbooking in 2005, but stopped in 2010 when I went to school to study photography. I sold all of my stuff in 2012 to make room for new things (like a darkroom and large format camera). Now, in 2015, I'm itching to start scrapping again and am taking baby steps before committing myself again. I'm going to try to use stuff that isn't necessarily for scrapbooking (mostly because I live in Iceland and I don't have easy access to new products and importing doubles the price of anything I buy online).

I bought 5 pcs of white cardstock today to get me started, printed two pics of my stepdaughter, gathered some stuff to start and have been sitting all night staring at the pics not knowing where to go from here.

Welcome back!

I am there too. I have been in a "funk" and am trying to get back at scrapping. I'm trying to do some project life type pages to get me started. Adding in 12x12 pages has been nice.

Oh my goodness, thank you SO much, all, for making me feel welcome (again!) and for reminding me of all the wonderful people I met through scrapbooking in the past. I'm still trying to take in how much the industry has shifted (so much has changed since I last scrapped), but it feels good to be giving my attention to this again.
Today, I watched a number of Stacy Julian videos (her philosophy has always felt most 'at home' with me), and my youngest dd and I began the HUGE task of going through my supplies/stock. There is so much work to do just to get me back in to operation mode. Unfortunately, my scrapbook cabinet and corner have been abused as a "catch-all" for the past 4 years of dormancy. I'm excited, though, to get it back in order.
My immediate plans are:
1) finish the clean up/reorganize/reconnect with my supplies
2) reread my Photo Freedom book
3) upload my hardrive and camera photos to an online site for printing
Like one of the ladies above, I *hope* to begin again soon with just ONE page per week, and then reset my goals once I get back into that scrapping groove again.
THANK YOU for the encouragement, and I'm touched that one person even remembers me. I look forward to reconnecting with former friends and connecting with new ones, too.
Btw, mini intro. I'm a homeschool mom of 4 kids. My oldest is 15 and attends a private school. The others are 13, 12, and 8, and are at home with me. My other passion is crochet.

Welcome back! I've taken breaks to homeschool my kids (all graduated now ) and to deal with crises, and in the last year I've just been uninspired. (But not when it comes to buying scrapbook supplies! ) In early January I went away with my sisters to a scrapbook retreat. I only got a few layouts done that weekend, but I had a good time and now I'm ready to get working.

We are all here for you and are very excited for you!

I'm always excited to see someone start scrapbooking AGAIN! I look forward to seeing some of you work

Oh my goodness! I thought I was one of only a few that get into a funk or stop scrapbooking. Glad I'm not the only one. I haven't scrapped in almost 2 years. I just can't get my mojo going. But, like one post above stated, I don't have a problem buying supplies! And, I don't have a designated room for supplies so it's in the corner of the dining room. Definitely going to take up some of the suggestions in this post. I so want to get back into it because when I started I had one grandchild. Now I have THREE, all under 4 years old. I need to get to scrappin' !

Welcome back!

I also took a bit of a break, but have just started getting back at it again. I did a bit here or there in the last two years, but I'd say from December 2012 until now, I didn't do too much. First, I was busy with wedding projects, and then my desk was covered in stuff, so I took a break there. Finally, got it cleaned off just in time to pack it all up to move.

But now, I have at least part of it setup in my new scrapbook room And I do not plan to move houses again for like 20 years lol.

Mulan, congratulations on your scrap-room . It's the most wonderful thing! Keep us posted.

I too have been on a break, lol, for about 2 years now and try very hard to get back into. Myscrappy area has been a catch all too, sho I am in that trying to get it all organized and see what I have and seeing a lot has changed. Once I get reorganized my goal is to start with 1 a week as well. My depression does not help my motivation at all so hoping finding some others like me might help. I too am trying to stay away from the chronological pressure and that's probably why I am stuck on reorganizing my hundreds of photos(not too mention the ones that aren't printed yet). Maybe if I clear my desk and try organizing some of the embellishments and things that never got put away after the last shipping spree, it may give me some mojo to work on the photos.
I am a disabled mom of 2 that stays at home all the time too, I have 2 boys left at home, youngest is 13 and in middle school, my older boy is 17 now, he quit school despite what his dad and I tried to tell him and he thinks he knows it all, usually I'm lucky if I know where he is. Also my oldest child is married now and her and her hubby have given us our first granddaughter they live in the next city. My dh is also disabled, he is a heart patient with a pace maker. My disability is my lower back and left leg, I have nerve and muscle damage. Believe it or not, I'm 46. I love to scrap, make cards, try some altering projects, crochet, knit, read and travel when we can.

Laura, did you read Photo Freedom at any point? Stacy's great at helping us to get away from the pressure of chronological scrapbooking. Not that it's not okay, because it not only IS okay to do it that way, but it's actually perfect...for some. For me, though, I can't seem to make the time nor find the energy for it. I'd rather see myself as a family historian who must pick and choose which stories to preserve for future generations. I heard Noell Hyman talk about scrapping Thanksgiving, and how there's only so much she can say about that, so she only has 5 or 6 Thanksgiving pages, not every year.
I'd love you to join me in organizing and setting a goal of JUST ONE page a week. Just one story. One story supported by maybe just one photo, even (more if we feel the need or want to do so.) Keep organizing, just one little 15 minute bit at a time......more to come.

• Scrap Chica Said:

Yes, our emotions can sometimes stifle our creativity, especially since scrapbooking can really tap into them, and not always in a good way. Many people use art journals for this very reason. It can be therapeutic to just splash paint and ink on a page and make a mess, and maybe find a quote that speaks to you and write it over the paint and ink!
Bravo to you for being vulnerable enough to share your feelings here. i think the first step to getting back to it is always the hardest-I'm sure many people agree.
I also think sometimes getting your space in order and maybe a small fun scrapoy purchase helps with the mojo!

Yes, thank you for that insight. And I'll need to remember to reward myself for a cleaned space by enjoying a new purchase to get me going again, too.

I found a website that showed me what to do with the tons of papers that I have, like making scrapbook "kits" with my papers. I've been able to but together some kits and pictures that I've needed to scrap. This is been a great start and has made me excited to start scraping again.

Would love to know the name of the site (if it's not Paperclipping dot com, -I'm already familiar with that one). Kits seem like a helpful approach.

I have stops and starts. Sometimes life just gets in the way but I always welcome a restart and jump start in the creative process. Sometimes we get stuck in a creative rut. That is part of the reason i am back on a message board.

So sorry I haven't been back, I had checked back but no one had responded yet. Yes, Toni, I would love to do that with you. No I haven't read that book, I tried to do Jill's organization class but got stuck after the pics when I want sure how to organize, she spoke of that book but I never got the chance to buy it yet. But I agree that I should try and clean off my desk and try to start organizing things a little at a time, maybe just once a week at first as I need to use things while doing my layouts with you. I do need to finger out a game plan for organizing my photos though. I also agree with the person who posted right after you, sorry forgive me I forgot the name. I agree we should reward ourselves as well. All good advice coming my way, thanks to everyone. Let me know when you are ready to start o or challenge Toni and like you said we should start with 1 and move it up a little at a time!
Just asking but how do you ladies organize your photos? Excuse me if you already said so and I missed it, I will go back and see if any of you said yet.

Yes, I have found myself in similar shoes to yours. I began scrapbooking as a teenager when in 10th grade and it continued through 12th grade. I owe that to a history teacher. Then my scrapbooking stopped until I got pregnant with my oldest son, I had his entire first year scrapbooked. When he was 9 months old, I found out I was pregnant with child number 2, so I began a second book for this baby. Two weeks after my youngest son was born, ALL of the scrapbooks went up in flames from a house fire. After we got another home, I began AGAIN on books for the two boys. Then in 2005 I lost them all to a tornado. Talk about sickening. I quit for a while. Then began AGAIN when I "inherited" some old photos of myself from my grandmother and needed to "erase" things written on the backs of photos. And I slowly began re-piecing books for my boys by asking relatives if they had any photos of them during the time frames that I lost. Great restart. Then depression hit with a huge bang, homeschooling continued (and still does) and "scrapbooking" stopped. I moved on to smash books, junk journals, and paper making. Now I'm finding myself coming back to scrapping, but slowly and at my pace. I began my "restart" by reorganizing my stash and creating new "page kits" from my OLD stash.

Wow! I'm really sorry to hear that you had such losses not only one but twice. I t think you did a great job on how you decided to restart though, I do believe that reorganizing is a smart way to go and I hadn't thought about kit making that's a good idea too, I hope you will stick around here and maybe even join in on our challenge.

I come back here off and on looking for inspiration on things. But it's been a LONG time since I posted until today. Today, what brought me back was being "re-elected" to do yearbooks for my boys homeschool group. I've done this before, several years ago and back then I tried "traditional scrapbooking" with the journalism students. Yeah, I learned the hard way that they were paper and emblie happy and the pages were VERY difficult to copy for yearbook printing. Now I'm thinking of using Project Life in an 8.5x11 format, and making the cards from my massive stash, thus saving money and limiting what the journalism students have access to. I have from now until June 2015 to begin making cards. Since my homeschool group schools year around, the new "term" begins in the summer as far as the journalism students are concerned. My oldest son (who turns 16 this summer) is one of the journalism students. He's not interested in the "newspaper" we do, but he loves photography. We'll see how that works out, lol.

Well that sounds like a good challenge for you and I think your right going the pl (although,I myself haven't ever tried it) with making the cards it's a great idea, I can see how traditional and too many choices could get out of hand. I wish you luck and I hope your son enjoys it!

I have not scrapped or crafted anything in so long, it's not even funny.....sigh..my Mama is now 6 years CANCER FREE.....in the past 2 years, my Mama in love has began battling early dementia, also diabetic and high bp...I have a dh who has battled with blood clots pasing thru his heart into his lungs 2x in the past 3 years..found out that at the age of 53, he has a blood clotting disease, Leiden Factor 5...so lots of drs and hospitals and all that...thanking God that he has been able to go back to work....I am a sahwife...so a lot falls on me.....sigh...not complaining, but explaining... I have a craft room FULL...2 Cricuts...carts...tons of supplies....when I log off here in a bit, my goal is to begin SOMETHING...even a card would be a start. I miss using my stuff...and it shows in my attitude....I miss ME TIME.. :/ Sorry for the sob story.....

We have all had those times when we've spent so much time taking care of others, or other things that we loose our "me" time. I'm at one of those places right now...sort of. I desperately want to take some "me" time and make some paper and work on some scrappy stuff (like project life cards), but I have to get the literature study guides for "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens finished. And, if doing a study guide for a book with over 40 chapters isn't enough (I have to stay ahead of the kids reading), I recently learned that my local school district LOST my boys homeschool evaluation for 2013-2014. And since THEY were mailed the only copy of the form, I have to have the evaluation REDONE...which means I have to pull things from my scrap stash to put BACK into school binders. I remove "personal" things my boys do like art work, photography, essays about themselves, etc. and use them in LO's for a huge book I'm making each of them that covers birth to graduation. If I don't get this done within the next week or two I can get into SERIOUS trouble. What irks me is the fact that I can get in trouble for something that isn't my fault...go figure.

Sorry it took so long to reply! The site I was talking about was Kiwi Lane Designs. They have several videos and one of them talked about using your current paper stash. You can go to You Tube to find the video. I've already scrapped a couple of layouts and hope I can find some time to do some more.

Here is the link that Kiwi Lane Designs put together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj8STEou0fQ&a mp;list=PL...

I have been "off" scrapbooking for awhile myself...had to go back to working outside of the home which really put a crimp in the time I could devote to it and just as I started to get back to it we got a surprise and found out we were expecting baby #3...so now I am struggling to get back to scrapbooking while juggling a full time job, 2 very busy teens and an active 11 month old. I have so much stuff that I could probably open my own store! A couple of times I have contemplated just letting it all go but I think I would really miss the creative outlet.

Heather R.

I am encouraged and touched to hear that I am not alone in missing our love of scrapbooking. So much has changed in the industry since I last scrapbooked, but one thing remains the same, -I can't make peace with NOT scrapbooking.

Okay, ladies, let's do this. Find just 15 minutes, this weekend, to begin to revisit your supplies. I am going to do it the "Flylady" way with 3 piles; throw away, give away, put away. The garbage can will be handy for "throw away." A Goodwill box or bag will be handy for give away. The rest will simply go on the "put away" pile, and I will either put it away (if I can), or set these items aside until I am ready to reorganize a cleaned out, new space.

Just FIFTEEN MINUTES. If your cleaning mojo kicks in and you want to do more, great. If not, 15 minutes with a timer.

If your stuff already IS organized and you would like to join us, jump in. Use the 15 minutes to either pull the pics you are going to scrap, or the supplies (create a page kit) that you would like to use. I know that I, myself, will be restarting with ONLY a "Simple Scrapbooks" approach, -pics, title, story, color. Good enough. Done. Move on.
If/when I decide to get super artsy and creative again, I'll cross that bridge later. Now is not the time (for me; you may feel differently and that's totally okay and right for you.)

THE JOURNEY OF A THOUSAND MILES BEGINS WITH A SINGLE STEP. Take that "fifteen minute step" with me, won't you? Report back after the weekend, and God bless us as we begin anew.

I'm in Toni, I'm going to start with 15 minutes today, like you, I need to start with reorganizing, then move to starting on more simplified layouts and work my way back to distressing and more creative things.
Will check back again tomorrow and see how things are progressing.

Awesome, Laura. I hope you were able to find just a few minutes to tackle some small pile, task, or plan. I was able to throw away some ugly (really ugly!) paper (it was so ugly that donating it would have been sinful, lol.)
I also took a quick inventory of the paper I have on hand (sheesh, I must have been on autopilot in the scrapbooking aisles when I was active), and I began to clean off the actual work surface inside my small computer-turned-scrapbook cabinet. I worked for about 25 minutes. It may seem like an enormous task for us to "awaken the beast" (our mojo), but I believe if we simply take ONE baby step at a time, and if we commit to the simplest of pages, and only ONE page if need be, we can slowly thaw and come back to life.
Do tell me how it went for you, and we'll come at this again very soon together. If you move along sooner, great. If not, we're going to do this. We ARE!

Hey Toni, well it didn't work as well as I had hoped. Not to say that I didn't do anything, I did but not what I wanted. I stalled myself on Saturday by saying I needed to finish knitting my dogs sweater before I started to give a try at those photos. On Sunday, I made myself walk into my small closet office and wanted to back out again, lol but I did get my paper almost all organized but still didn't touch the photos. Yes I need to do this with you again soon please!

I get up very early in the morning; I do laundry, dishes and I make time for 30 min of scrapping before I jump into the shower and start my day as a Special Education teacher. My job is stressful. The 30-40 minutes of scrapping centers me, calms me and gives me focus. A friend of mine here taught me to always have a project on going. Sometimes in the morning I only ink my paper; sometimes I go out to the dinning room and punch something. I just do a little each day.

Some of the comments on here were SO "me" that I had to check to make sure I hadn't written them! I, too, got stalled making cards. After all, you can do a LOT of cards in the time it takes to do one scrap page. So that was ONE excuse. And then I discovered how much more fun it is to just shop for new supplies than to actually DO something with them. ;-D But just this weekend I re-discovered the joy of actually scrapbooking and did a few new pages. I never scrap chronologically - I prefer to work on whatever happens to delight me at the time. After all, it's supposed to be fun, right?

• bonprof Said:

Thanks for sharing this Donna. I really like this idea of giving yourself the time and what it does for you. Your idea dovetailed into something i was thinking about, you gave me some inspiration.

• Scrap Chica Said:

We will DEFINITELY do this again soon. And my dog is a pampered princess with a beard, lol (she's a Border terrier) so I understand finishing a dog sweater. Glad you were able to at least go in and mingle with your papers. It COUNTS. Baby steps (which we WILL take again very soon.)

• dwelch Said:

I don't scrap chronologically, either. When we TELL stories in life, we tell what we find important, funny, sad, or otherwise memorable. I scrap the same way (well, scrapped, but I'm working on making that "present tense" again.)
And YES, it's supposed to be fun. So awesome that you got a few pages done. Woot!

• bonprof Said:

What a great idea. I think it makes sense to just have a project "going on", -finding time here and there to address even the smallest of steps to bring it to completion. Thanks for sharing this.

I must admit though, having a scraproom makes all the difference. When I lived in my apartment just 15 months ago, I had to keep everything packed up until I had two or three hours to scrap. It is the greatest of luxurious to have a scrap room!

I love the Flylady mentality of addressing our stashes. I use Flylady for a lot of things around my house and one thing that I need to do is my closet! I've had so many well intentioned people give me things (mostly for my two teen boys) and sadly since my boys 1) don't have room for it in their room, 2) most is too small for one son and still too big for the other, 3) the majority is a much "older" style than most teens are wearing (the majority once belonged to a 40 something year old man who was a car salesman), etc. this stuff has over taken my closet. It's so bad that I can no longer get to my quilting supplies located at the back of the closet, and can only use the front 1/4 of my closet rack to hang up clothes. I've tried having a yardsale to get rid of the stuff (it's nice clothes) but my MIL who lives next door had a fit. In her opinion, I should keep it until the child it's too big for grows into it. I've tried telling her that is pointless because it's not his style, he doesn't like them, etc. but it didn't work. She has the mentality that he should wear them even if he thinks they are ugly simply because they are "good clothes". I canceled the yardsale and tossed it all back into the bottom of my closet.

The majority of my scrapbooking stuff is already organized. Although I do still have quite a few papers to trim down from 12x12 to 8.5x11. I don't have stamps, punches, etc. to organize just paper, cardstock, some stickers, and some embellishments (most of which I made from my paper scraps).

I do not throw away paper, not even really ugly paper. I recycle it into handmade stationary, journals, etc. I create new paper with it. This works well since I have a hobby that is equally as much fun to me as scrapping and that's paper making. My DH doesn't mind my paper making, he says "well honey, you've found a hobby that makes you happy and that doesn't cost me anything except occasionally replacing your deckle. And you've found a wonderful way of disposing of paper that we don't want in the garbage (things with socials, account numbers, etc.)" I love my DH. But since I have to make a journal for a nice for her birthday in May, I'm wondering if he's going to continue to like this hobby of mine when I'm endlessly processing paper for weeks to make the pages of her journal.

• bonprof Said:

Teaching special education can be very challenging. I live with a "special" child, well teenager now. He's 15 and has Asperger Syndrome. Some of his "quirks" can get very irritating, but for the most part I'm used to them because I'm his momma. HE is the reason I began homeschooling in 2004 when he would have entered Kindergarten at our local school. I had a grandmother who taught special needs kids and I assumed that most people who entered that profession were like her, someone who loved the kids, respected the kids, etc. I was so very wrong. When I told the lady who would have been his teacher that he had Asperger Syndrome, she said, "oh, then he doesn't need to be in my class, he needs to be in so and so's class." So, I met that teacher. She seemed nice enough at first, until I began asking her about how her class was different than the other class. And her response floored me. She said, "oh it's simple really. The kids in this class are not academically challenged in any way. We dumb down everything so that the morons in my class can do the work." Uh huh. She just called all of her students, "morons". As the discussion continued, she also called all of her students "retarded". My then 5 yr. old thought that word was a curse word of sorts. We have a relative who is mentally and physically handicapped and we taught our boys from an early age to not make fun of her, laugh at her, or call her "retarded". We told them that was a bad word that we never, ever use in reference to anyone. Well, my son attempted to correct this teacher and told her, "that word is bad". And then she called HIM "retarded". His response was priceless. He said, "actually I'm not retarded, I'm quite smart. I've been able to say my ABC's forwards and backwards since age 3, would you like for me to show you?" And then he began telling her the names of all the shapes that were on posters on her wall, and went on to name some countries on her world map. I smiled so huge. He had learned those things because at various stages they were his obsessions and we humored him with those obsessions and even encouraged them. And then I told her, "I think I've changed my mind about public school for my son. Have a nice school year, but AP will not be in your class." I think I made the right decision for MY child, but felt bad for all of the children that did end up with that teacher. I complained about her to the school board when I sent in my letter of intent to homeschool. Whether or not anything was done about her, I don't know.

Are you me? I stopped for 4 or 5 years, had a spurt of creativity about a year or so back. But nothing since then. I have been wanting to get back into it, what better way then t spend money?! So I just ordered over a hundred sheets if paper a bunch of washi and. I am not sure what else. So i BETTER get scrapping soon!

So sorry you had that horrible experience! I know of many fine Special ed teachers including me. I teaching challenging academics everyday. Our students are doing amazing things everyday. I hope that horrible teachet you spoke of is gone.

I'm in the same boat! I'm trying to get going again after 2 years.

I feel like the stuff I have been posting is "off" But I am excited to start getting our family memories down again!